CLIENT: Macarthur Foundation, the Los Angeles Mayor’s Office and Los Angeles Unified School District collaborated to implement the Los Angeles Summer of Learning program, based on the Digital Media and Learning methodology which incorporates the concept of digital badges as earned evidence of effective 21st century learning.

KEY ELEMENTS: Project Management, Stakeholder Engagement, Coalition Building

CHALLENGE: MacArthur’s now-completed decade-long Digital Media and Learning initiative supported research and design experiments to better understand how digital media are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize, and participate civically and how those insights could be used to improve education. A new approach called Connected Learning emerged from this grantmaking as a powerful new framework for designing learning that is engaging, relevant, and prepares young people for a highly connected, technology-enabled 21st century.

SOLUTION: Millennium helped long time collaborator Partnerships for Purpose cultivate productive relationships to help advance Connected Learning, an approach that recognizes that learning today can and does take place anywhere and everywhere - in school, in the community, on the job and online. One promising approach that emerged from this work was Cities of Learning, a national movement which sought to transform the learning landscape in a city by using badges to connect in- and out-of-school learning and make accessible alternative pathways to academic, civic, and career success. Data gathered through badges helps provide a more holistic view of what and where a young person is learning and whether city resources are distributed equitably to offer learning programs where they are needed most. Millennium and P4P led the effort to launch Los Angeles as a City of Learning through an inaugural Summer of Learning, working closely with the then Mayor Garcetti's Office and the Los Angeles Unified School District to offer digital badges and pathways to thousands of LA youth.